Trauma
by beisel76
Summary: Jeremy sustains an injury while not wearing his ring, and Damon realizes he cares for Mini Gilbert. Adult language, gore, fictional plot device, pre- slash more than anything else


Trauma

Of course I heard the knife being drawn from the rack on the kitchen counter, and of course I saw it too. Under ordinary circumstances, I would have rushed to the injured human numbered among our pathetic little Scooby Gang. Then I remembered that it was Jeremy who had been stabbed by the vicious little witch trying to bring on a turf war with Bonnie. Mini Gilbert would get up in a few seconds, and there would be nothing to remind anyone of the wound he had sustained except for his torn and bloodstained clothes, and of course, the witch's torn and bloodstained corpse.

Then I smelt the blood gushing forth too strongly for the wound to have any chance of closing. I could see him sinking lower to the floor, clutching a hand to the rapidly expanding crimson stain blossoming on his abdomen. Then I tore my eyes away from that delicious-smelling blossom of blood and to his hand, which was also covered in that same blood. Somehow I managed to see past the blood for what I was looking for, don't ask me how. His ring wasn't on his hand.

It rocked me like a bolt of lightning. Mini Gilbert was hurt, and hurt badly. I had seen many a friend and foe struck down by similar wounds during the war, but they had possessed the fortune of me not wanting their blood. And damn did that blood smell good.

It tore at my senses, ripped away my self-control by the layers. I wanted that blood so bad. Not because I cared for the boy. No. I wanted it because it was similar to Elena's, after all, he was her cousin and lived in the same house as her. I pushed the hunger away long enough to lung across the Gilbert kitchen and strike the witch down.

She issued a terrible scream as I knocked her to the tile floor. I could taste her fear, and it mingled with Jeremy's in my mouth and nose. I could feel the weight of her terror on my tongue. Then I felt the weight of her flesh. I tore pieces from her, letting her acrid blood pool on the floor beneath us. Her black hair glistened with a crimson tint, her tanned skin was smeared with her own blood, and she continued to scream.

"Damon!" The boy spoke quietly, weakly.

I turned and saw him looking up at me with the biggest puppy-eyes I'd ever seen. I swear, the Gilbert family has a patent on those things. I rose from the soon-to-be-very-dead-witch and walked across the kitchen to him. I knelt in front of him, and I felt the hunger rush back in an instant as the scent of his blood filled my nostrils.

"My ring… she took it." Jeremy paused to take a very laborious breath. "If…I put it on now…I'll heal…please?"

I was beside the witch and digging through her purse in a flash. I rummaged through the bag, but I couldn't find the ring. I felt my muscles becoming tight with anxiety and terror. Out of frustration and anger I dumped the contents of the purse onto the floor and threw it against the opposite wall. It crashed through it and traveled into the dining room while I frantically searched for the ring. I would have to explain the nice little hole in the wall to Elena and Jenna, not to mention the nice little hole in Mini Gilbert.

I heard Jeremy sigh, and the terror jumped up and grasped me firmly. I knew that sigh. It was the sound of a man dying, of his body giving up. I snapped my head away from the mess of inane and useless objects from the witch's purse, and eyed her still-bleeding body.

There!

I snatched it from here so clumsily and hurriedly that I ripped her arm off. Oh well. She screamed again, and I made sure to step on her sternum as I sped back to Jeremy. At least the smell of her blood would dampen the strength of Jeremy's, which was steadily encumbering my senses.

He was lying down now, still holding his blood-soaked hand over his wound. Like that was helping. I picked him up by the shoulders and pulled his head into my lap, cradling his head in one hand while the other grasped for his unstained one.

An outside observer might have thought the scene that followed was sweet, romantic even. I stared into his eyes, half-closed and glassy, as I slid the ring onto his finger. I continued to grasp his hand as I watched for the magic of the ring to begin its work. I ripped the boy's shirt off, to make it easier to see if the wound was mending. He shivered as cold air lapped at his blood-slicked chest, and I found my other hand petting his dark brown hair. It was so sweet it was sickening. Honestly, big scary vampire here, not like that Cullen creeper from Twilight. Besides, _Elena_ was the one I wanted to fuck brainless. Elena, not her adorable seemingly-innocent but actually quite well-informed and desperate to be involved brother. Yeah, that was right.

A moment later, once the wound had closed and he had begun to breathe normally again, I lifted him in my arms and carried him up to the master bathroom. I couldn't be near him like this, with all that yummy-smelling blood tempting me to sink my fangs into his neck or, let's be honest, any other part of him I could get my mouth on. I so needed to get some fresh blood – the bagged stuff was screwing with my head, if I was considering munching on Mini Gilbert.

He was practically asleep from the staggering amount of blood he had lost. That made it easier. That left me alone to deal with the growing bulge in my jeans; blame it on the blood. I wondered if he would have trouble sleeping, if the adrenaline rush would override the lack of blood. Then the thought of him lying on his bed, so exhausted and sweaty and breathless that he had to sleep sprang in to my head. It was followed by the thought of me keeping him up all night.

I quickly moved my mind on to other things, like the lecture my baby brother would give me when he peered into the boy's recollection of what had happened a few moments ago, and when he scanned me for the barest glimpse of my emotions regarding tonight.

I distracted myself with laving at Jeremy's now very pale skin with a hot washcloth. I reached down tentatively and lapped a streak of it off his chest. He shivered, and my senses soared. I cleaned the area around his left nipple more personally now, using my tongue rather than the rag. A tiny moan escaped the boy's lips, and I smirked.

This tasted even better than Elena's smelled. And I could have this. _I wanted this._

"Not tonight Jeremy. I think you've been through enough for one twenty-four hour period." I said. I didn't know if the boy could understand me in his questionable state of consciousness, and, to be honest, it didn't matter much.

After all, I decided as I placed Jeremy between his mattress and pillows and his sheet and comforter, Jeremy would wake up and remember what had happened. We could go from there. Mini-Gilbert was a teenage boy after all, and his hormones would be positively raging after our little exchange in the kitchen tonight.

I sighed contentedly and smirked at the sleeping form as I retreated to the doorway of Jeremy's bedroom.

"He's cute, isn't he?" I heard Jenna say form the space behind me, in the hallway. I tried not to look startled as I turned around to face her. Caught red-handed (quite literally thanks to that witch), creeping on the baby nephew. Fucking brilliant.

"How long have you been standing there?" I asked her. She returned my smirk, but hers was genuinely cool and self-satisfied, unlike mine. This was so fucked up. I'm the vampire here!

"Long enough to know there's at least one person in this town that you don't hate." She answered coyly. I narrowed my eyes. Time to act like a vampire.

"If you tell anyone-"

"Oh no lover boy, I am so not getting in the middle of this. You can have the joy of telling Elena that you're fucking her baby brother – make sure she's not wearing any silver jewelry when you do, or any vervain." I raised an eyebrow at her in question.

"I'm not their mom. I'm the cool aunt who acts like a cool older sibling, and caused at least as much trouble for her sister as her kids did." She paused. "That being said, if you hurt him I will sick Alaric on you, and if you don't get rid of that mangled corpse in my kitchen I will bathe you in vervain."

The she strolled past me, down the hall to her own bedroom. She bade me goodnight as she retreated from me, and didn't look back once.

What a strange family, I thought. Understatement of the Year award was _so_ mine this year. So was the Champion Hypocrite Award. Honestly, look at the nut jobs in my family, then compare.

Then I turned back to Jeremy, sleeping soundly in his bed. Satisfied, I left through the window in his bedroom.

Let the kid try and figure that out when he wakes up tomorrow, I thought. I smirked all the way home to the boarding house, and couldn't wait for the sun to come up over Mystic Falls in a few hours. Tomorrow was going to be so much fun, for me of course. Jeremy was going to be terribly confused, and Jenna's ultimatum over the corpse in her kitchen demanded a few more hours of labor, so I would probably be in bad mood in the morning. Then I thought of the precious look that would occupy Jeremy's features the next morning when he recalled tonight, dismissed it as a dream, and found me in his bedroom. Oh yes, I thought, deplorable mood now vanished completely.

If Stephan thought it was strange, even for me, to hum jaunty tunes while disposing of a very dead witch, he didn't let on.


End file.
